Closed Review Rating System: Request For Comments

[TAG Manager]

Hi everyone!

So, in short, we've gotten a lot of feedback about how to use the 1-10 rating system

We would to open a comment period to figure out to improve on this system and determine what would be more ideal.

Our suggestions:

1) Increase the ratings: Add different categories to give ratings for things like: Overall, Appearance, Personality, Performance

2) Remove the ratings: Just simply do away with it.

3) Change to a 5 star system: Instead of just 1-10; just change it to a star system which just becomes a more overall type of rating. Some people don't like the representation of 'numbers' and using stars removes that stigma.

4) Community Ideas: Please submit your ideas below.

We welcome your civil comments below.

Thank you.

 

[Wwanderer]

My first choice is option #2, and my second choice is option #3.

We welcome your civil comments below.

I rate this restriction on comments a 3 out of 10!

-Ww

 

[TAG Manager]

My first choice is option #2, and my second choice is option #3.



I rate this restriction on comments a 3 out of 10!

-Ww

Thank you for your feedback.

 

[Curacao]

Maybe just have a few textual choices?

Eg. 'I enjoyed it I think you will too!'
'I enjoyed it you might not'
'Average. Your mileage at vary'
'Average. I would be surprised if tour mileage varies'
'Did not enjoy. Maybe you will'
'Did not enjoy. Don't think you will.
'Disaster. See review for details'

 

[Sudsy]

My first choice is option #2, and my second choice is option #3.

I concur with Ww on this. Ratings are, IMO, somewhat counterproductive, numerical ones more so.

They give a "meat market" kind of vibe. Stars are somewhat better than numbers, though.

 

[User#16452]

4 (ideas) - I've mentioned this a few times before (and I'm sure that poor TAG Manager is tired of reading it) but I would appreciate having a few yes/no sections, or at least an optional simplified review form. I think some people are put off writing a review because of the length involved or because their written English is not good enough.

e.g.
Did the provider arrive on time? Yes/No
Did the provider look like their photos? Yes/No
Did the provider offer [sexual act]? Yes/No

Of course there can be an area for additional comments for each question.

2 (remove) - I've read a bunch of pre-rating system reviews and I think they work better to be honest. If there was an issue it had to be mentioned in the text, instead of just giving a lower rating and leaving it ambiguous which isn't much help.

 

[jacqueh]

Ratings are convenient for giving you an impression before reading. I know there is also the "Final Thoughts" in red for this reason, but seeing a number helps to know whether I'll read or just close the tab.
@User#16452 has a good point about the questions. It reminds me of TER, and is quite convenient come to think of it.

The information potential clients are after is probably something like:
Is the provider hot for me?
Does she have a bad attitude?
Does she provide some sexual acts I'm looking for?

For this, questions would help. They might also help building a nice search.

Therefore, I answer #1 and #3

 

[just4fun]

I'm big on reading reviews.....I hate surprises.....
the 1-10 score is ok and 5 star .....isn't it pretty much the same thing?
A question regarding the rating might work......

I understand how the providers feel.....I really do but this is a business transaction......
will you return to that business.......yes/no/why seems like a fair judgement call.

 

[DJV]

I like reviews (reading and writing them), and after struggling with the system, my feedback is :
- we might get rid of the score
- a star rating would be catastrophic, because high end escorts will want nothing but 4,5/5 stars, and it might be unnatural to give 5 stars to a muchi nerdy girl with the best mat play skills.
- a replacement by standard textual appreciation (as Curaçao's) might work with the right set of choices

It would be nice to distinguish the provider's quality of service and the client's own experience :

You can have an excellent provider and find yourself in a subpar state, which alters your experience and perception.
No one is to blame in that case, and with a clear catch phrase like "incredible provider, next time I'll be in better shape" everyone should be fine.
I really like when reviewers point out their own weaknesses, and explain/suggest how the providers get around that (sometimes with maestria).

 

[RandomTokyoGuy]

I find the ratings useful, as @Emma-Emerio pointed out. Some people write very long reviews that could easily sell as novels too. It's nice to have a quick glance at the overall experience. I don't mind turning it into stars, but please keep the 10 grade scale (e.g. 4.5 stars).
Option #1 would definitely be a reason to not write reviews for me.
I also don't like qualitative grades like godlike, excellent, very good etc.
If you have to change it, #3 would be my preference.

 

[RandomTokyoGuy]

@DJV
As for high-end vs. entry-level, just check any travel portals. You almost always have some very low end among the best ranked and some really excellent ones with more average scores. It's only natural that if you pay a fortune you become much more picky.
That's why there is an actual review with text, which hopefully gives some more info than "I had a fantastic time ".

 

[MacMackerson]

My opinion:

Summary: People are bad at ratings. I recommend a 'three star' contextual system: *** Recommended Will/Would Repeat, **No Regrets But Would Not Repeat, *I Regret the Encounter/I Want My Money Back. This works for amateurs and experts.

Reasoning:
With a ten point scale, should an average encounter be a 5? If you averaged all your P4P would it be a 5? Should only your best encounter be a 10? Conversely, should only your worst encounter by a 1?

Haha who fucking knows!? I would answer these questions differently based on how I was feeling at the time.

Another issue is how would someone who has never done P4P rate someone? Their first would by definition be 'average'.

Anyway, what I am going for is that a good and useful rating system should be able to state what a specific rating means in words (the quantitative rating should have a qualitative equivalent). 1-100 is ideal for decision making but not when it comes from bad data.

 

[Wwanderer]

I actually believe ratings are consistently detrimental to reviews as they discourage the author to write about his or her experience in detail. From my point of view as a provider, it just feels bizarre to rate an encounter with another person in terms of a 5- or 10-numbered scale. There is a reason it's called a 'review' and not a rating system.

The above is a pretty common view among escorts to the extent I can judge from remarks that have been made over the years.

A way for guys to think about this is to imagine that escorts routinely reviewed their dates with customers and posted them. How would you feel about being assigned an undefined numerical grade on your quality as a customer?

But aside from how anyone feels about being numerically rated, my principle objection is that it introduces uncertainty and confusion into understanding what a reviewer means. In effect it reduces the review's information content...precisely counterproductive in other words. The very diversity of views expressed in this thread illustrates how differently different mongers think of numerical rating systems and thus how useless they are unless you know how each particular reviewer understands/means a given rating.

-Ww

 

[Wwanderer]

Btw, although I obviously have strong/definite views on the numerical ratings, my opinion should probably not be given much weight since I rarely write or pay much attention to reviews myself.

One additional thought on a possible compromise - what about retaining the numerical ratings (the current system or some similar one) but allowing the reviewer to omit assigning one if he prefers. The number or stars or whatever portion of the review would instead say something like "I prefer not to use the numerical rating system for this review."

-Ww

 

[ShibaKen]

I personally do not like numerical ratings as I feel that it detracts from the actual experience itself. This applies to various forms of entertainment as well. My personal suggestion is to just have "Will definitely repeat", "Will repeat if possible", "Not bad but will not repeat", "Not good and will not repeat" and "Bad experience" as the closing line of the review. The 4th one can be removed if it seems unnecessary. Curacao's suggestion is also a good one.

 

[john.smith]

I vote for 1) I like ratings.
A 10/10 is a simple way to say "I will remember it for a long time". A 8/10 is a simple way to say "Was great". A 7/10 "Was OK".

Reviews without rating might be OK if it was presented in a way similar to go141, where each escort has her own page.
But I like rating in the forum.

 

[Wwanderer]

I vote for 1) I like ratings.
A 10/10 is a simple way to say "I will remember it for a long time". A 8/10 is a simple way to say "Was great". A 7/10 "Was OK".

If everyone agreed on those meanings or if they were specified somewhere (e.g., on the review template), then it would be fine. The problem is that some guys will reserve a 10/10 for the best experience they can imagine but don't realistically expect to ever have and indicate "was OK" with a 5/10 and so forth. Others will give 10/10 whenever they have no particular complaints and would repeat etc.

Moreover, most people feel their own interpretation of the numbers is the natural one that should be obvious to everyone else. But it isn't.

-Ww

 

[john.smith]

Then why not something in the line of "Life memory > Excellent > Good > Meh > Bad > I want to forget" instead of numbers ?

 

[Wwanderer]

Then why not something in the line of "Life memory > Excellent > Good > Meh > Bad > I want to forget" instead of numbers ?

That would work just fine for me.

My objection to the rating system has always been that it sounds precise (numbers convey a sense of accuracy and perhaps measurement) when in fact their meaning is so ill-defined that they are almost, not quite, meaningless and often add uncertainty to what the reviewer is trying to convey rather than clarity. And clear and explicit definition of what the numbers mean would be a BIG improvement imo.

-Ww

 

[gaijinsan]

Then why not something in the line of "Life memory > Excellent > Good > Meh > Bad > I want to forget" instead of numbers ?

I like TER's system, which rates performance and appearance on a defined number scale, with 10 being "One in a lifetime". If I see a lady on there rated 8/8, I know that's still really good since 9s and 10s are somewhat rare (just like in real life!). An 8/10 or 4/5 on TAG will sometimes give me pause, unless it's from a shrewd reviewer, or there are lots of details to give the rating some context.

 

[Quietlife]

I use Beer Advocate as part of my business. On that site they use a numerical system which is advanced in that they also provide a percentage deviation for that reviewer compared with others who rated the same beer.

For example:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/64/6108/

You can also check how an individual user generally rates. Some people are more generous than others.

However, the rating is not sufficient on its own. So they encourage a written review to fill in the details. It's the written part that gets people's mouths watering. The written review can be broken down into appearance, smell, taste, mouth feel, overall, etc.

In my opinion both systems have value as the numerical score allows one to ignore obviously poor beers. Then the details ignite interest.

However, everyone has different taste, and so rating is still flawed.

Importantly for me, providers are not bottles of beer (come on genetic engineers). They are human beings with feelings. And I find it difficult to justify a rating system. Even sports players can be deeply affected by newspaper performance ratings, as can salaried workers in their annual appraisal.

So if we had to give a rating, I would suggest only giving stars for exceptional performance or quality, similar to Michelin, or in my case, climbing guidebooks.

 

[TAG Manager]

Thanks for all of the feedback.

For the time being, we've removed the 1-10 rating system until we think of something better. We have added a picture question though, just for the sake of having some sort box to click.

I'll close this thread now, but please feel free to create new suggestion threads as needed.